Steve

The little kiddy asylum seekers shoved off to a country where they'll get flogged. Sorry that's bad taste but only half tongue in cheek. this Govt is in a right royal mess at the moment, isnt it. There's poop flying eveywhere Just goes to show putting a woman in there and hoping that bought a bit of commonsense to the whole crap shoot just made all of us girls look bad. She still has idiots with their hand up her back pulling the strings. And thats only if I try to find an excuse for her - just because she IS a girl.

Problem is what will they trade to have it all shut up and go away. Word was when all of the rumble was going on about live sheep exports there was a deal cut - bring in tail docking and banding bans and we will shut up about the live sheep exports.Dont know if thats true or not but it did come from a pretty good source within the corridors of government. Cant deny however, that tail docking and banding was made illegal and all of a sudden - the live export for sheep scandal stopped over night. One minute it was everywhere next minute not a wimper. Very strange.

Even if they are meant f r the pot. You can still eat them here - as long as you dont cut their tails off or debark them without the correct paper work and take em to a show first.

Might be throwing the baby out with the bath water? Why on earth would we want to ban dogs going over seas because in one country they mis - treat cattle?

Its not going to happen with dogs. Back when we attended the round table on puppy farming there was some chatter about them wanting to ban puppies being exported until they are 6months old. That may re surface later on but a general ban on exporting dogs is never going to fly. If someone found some terrible thing happening with some puppies being exported and we saw one of these expose' shows like the 4 corners program on livestock at most we would be prevented from selling to a certain country,to certain people or in a certain way. Worrying about them stopping the exportation of dogs is wasting energy at the moment in my opinion as there are many other things we need to focus on which really are pressing and realistic threats. I also dont see much point in debating why we are facing the issues we are as far as who got it started or who has fed it being very productive. What should have come out of PDE is a call for research. Research to identify if there really is a problem , if there is what the problem is, how wide spread it is and what is best needed to fix it. Emotion has no role to play here and one group or other going into defence mode and or playing a PR game isnt going to help either. Decisions have been made which are based on anecdotal evidence, speculation, basic guess work and media grandstanding. Instead where the researcvh has been done - it has been over looked and decisions made which contradict the facts. In my opinion being concerned about a general ban on exportation of dogs is something which may come on the agenda somewhere into the future but its not something which we need to be concerned about in the near future.

Actually saying that owners cause dogs to be fat post desexing isn’t really the whole story. Ovaries produce estrogen, and if you take that away from a mammal the body looks for other places to get needed estrogen from. Fat cells can produce estrogen, so when the estrogen goes the body works harder to convert calories into fat to increase estrogen levels. Fat cells don't burn calories the way muscle cells do, which causes the weight gain Testosterone helps the body to create lean muscle mass out of the calories that are taken in. Muscle cells burn more calories than fat cells do, increasing the metabolism. When levels of testosterone drop it results in the loss of this muscle. This means a lower metabolism. The lower the metabolism is, the slower the body burns calories, which causes weight gain. If you start to lower the food intake when you notice a bit of weight gain then the body can go into “famine effect” and these stress hormones signal the body to hang onto all the food that comes in – in case the body doesn’t get enough food for a long time so it starts to store calories. Fact is an extra weight gain may even lessen the results of these hormones not being present and help to protect against bone diseases, incontinence etc so don’t be too hard on yourself if your dogs put on a bit of extra weight when they are desexed. You don’t want fat dogs but it might be in their best interests to have them a bit meatier post op that they were pre op. If these hormones decrease naturally the body prepares for it and the results are not as obvious but when they are taken away in a young animal there is definitely stuff going on inside the dog which the owners have no idea of.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/06/17/jewish-court-sentences-dog-to-death-by-stoning/ JERUSALEM — A Jerusalem rabbinical court condemned to death by stoning a dog it suspects is the reincarnation of a secular lawyer who insulted the court's judges 20 years ago, Ynet website reported Friday. According to Ynet, the large dog made its way into the Monetary Affairs Court in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighbourhood of Mea Shearim in Jerusalem, frightening judges and plaintiffs. Despite attempts to drive the dog out of the court, the hound refused to leave the premises. One of the sitting judges then recalled a curse the court had passed down upon a secular lawyer who had insulted the judges two decades previously. Their preferred divine retribution was for the lawyer's spirit to move into the body of a dog, an animal considered impure by traditional Judaism. Clearly still offended, one of the judges sentenced the animal to death by stoning by local children. The canine target, however, managed to escape. "Let the Animals Live", an animal-welfare organisation filed a complaint with the police against the head of the court, Rabbi Avraham Dov Levin, who denied that the judges had called for the dog's stoning, Ynet reported. One of the court's managers, however, confirmed the report of the lapidation sentence to Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot. "It was ordered... as an appropriate way to 'get back at' the spirit which entered the poor dog," the paper reported the manager as saying, according to Ynet. Certain schools of thought within Judaism believe in the transmigration of souls, or reincarnation.

Yep the horses are here.

She knows but she has a bit of a battle yet.

Is it the horses?

Yep - beautiful. Im going to have a stab at starting to put it together over the week end.

Not real posh today. Your arrived - very beautiful!

Hesapandabear will be able to tell you where its up to but its going to be a while yet .

Yep I got it. Thank you Julie

The horse piece arrived this morning

In any state in Australia when you buy something it has to be fit for the purpose it was intended for. Tell her to go to fair trading but in all honesty anyone who would buy a sharpei cross staffy let alone breed one is an idiot. Cheaper and less suffering on the dog and the humans to put it to sleep.

Yep and the more we deny it rather than accept the critism and at least say we know its happeneing in some areas and we will have a go at fixing it when its as plain as the nose on your face the more they will feel the need to legislate against us. Beating up the messenger simply makes fools of us.

I love these - we are just doing a road test on them now I can see.

Good brreders need to breed more dogs which are predictible to ensure they select dogs which will be best suited to the family's lifestyle and the environment it will live in.- simple we need more registered breeders breeding more dogs.

Choice is good as long as everyone has the right to gain the info - for and against and make the best decisions for them and their dog in consultaion with their vet but to push for it to be across the baord without choice and with out education sucks.

If you are going to debate you need more than "i think" There is no evidence that mandatory desexing lowers kill rates. Just look at the ACT mandatory desexing for dogs over 12 weeks - didnt work so they want to try for mandatory desexing for dogs over 8 weeks. Show me the figures and then convince me that saving some one else dog is more important than me making the best decisions for my dog.

Seriously, how do you see this happen? People have to be educated and be made aware of all the dogs in the pounds, not solving this issue by desexing all animals. In my eyes thats a wrong way of dealing with things. I understand that you feel this is evidence for your beliefs but more research is required before you can ask us to see his condition now as evidence for pro desexing. All you will see if we go with your position is more desexed animals in pounds. Do you think that puppy farmers will breed more or less to take up the demand? World wide mandatory desexing hasnt worked to take down pound numbers. You can't expect to tell how early desexing is affecting that dog and you wont see any impact for years. How do you justify wanting experiments which have been scientifically proven to effect the health and long term well being of an animal to prove a theory that it will cut down animals in pounds? Once it becomes law there is no going back without a class action to make a government which is making us desex pay for the issues our dogs develop - in the mean time it cuts down on their quality of life and longevity - No worries though we can blame the breeder for that. If that dog devlops HD we can blame the breed or the breeder but science says the incidence is increased by miles [over 70% ] if they are desexed early. Have a look at the side effects from taking away testosterone from any male animal and then seriously tell me that having no testosterone doesnt affect their health and longevity especially in a high growth situation. Now if you want to advocate for vasectomy or tubal ties - Ill back you in but while ever its about taking away estrogen and testosterone as far as Im concerned its advocating cruelty. What a joke taking off tails and debarking is in the acts for prevention of cruelty and yet we advocate yanking out organs and leaving them for the rest of their lives without the most important hormones their creator gives them. The basic fact of life is that tubals and vasectomies leave them with their hormones in tact and it never really was about cutting down on the population its about how taking away their testosterone makes them easier to live with. Dont lower their voices which is no worse than a tonsils op in order to make em easier to live with unless you jump through hoops because thats cruel but push like mad - to a point of making it law to take out their testicles - oh yes and if you dont like the look go ahead have fake testicles implanted - thats O.K. too.

Quick short up date. Erny has had a bit of a set back so will be a bit quiet for the next few days. Nothing for anyone to be worried about but she isnt doing real posh.Will keep you updated. Julie

You cannot register merle to merle in Border Collies but I think it is the only breed with that rule. Strange it hasn't been applied to the other breeds. All the other colours in Border Collies have no bearing on health and are perfectly acceptable for showing and breeding everywhere else in the world, just not here. All the breed standards need overhauling by genetic experts in relation to what colours should and shouldn't be allowed. Any colour that affects health or is genetically impossible in a purebred dog of a particular breed, needs to a disqualifying colour. Other than that all colours should be allowed. Allowing breed committees with no understanding of colour genetics to just pick the colours they like is why we have this mess in the first place. Danes too.

Sometimes free dogs are great dogs. As long as she knows she needs to ensure she covers all of the things needed such as vaccinations and chips and considers what the parents temp is like and what size its expected to grow and she fits that with what will suit her I cant see a big deal in it. Why on earth would the dogs being dumped on rescue first be better, The people who have the dog are taking responsiblity for finding it a new home. Its the same dog if it goes into rescue first. Just because you are taking a freebie doesnt make you a moron - just make sure you are not just taking it because its free any more than you would take it just because its in rescue or from a registered breeder. Hard to win really if you have an accidental litter and you dump it you're a mongrel, if you have an accidental litter and you sell it you are breeding for money, if you have an accidental litter and give it away you're in the poo too. The dog is here and alive and needs a home. If someone can give it one and love it - thats a good thing - isnt it?